Compiled in response to emerging transnational perspectives in American Studies, this comprehensive and imaginative anthology brings together a rich variety of works of colonial literature from across the Americas, covering the period from first contact, through to settlement and the emergence of national identities, with an emphasis on the American Revolutionary period.
The editors weave together a diverse collection of exploration and travel accounts, epic, occasional and meditational poetry, histories and narratives, ballads, journal entries, oral narratives, letters, and essays to illustrate the depth and breadth of American colonial cultures.

Most texts are presented in their original form from first editions. Alongside the standard English colonial texts, works from Native American, Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Dutch and Italian sources are also included, some newly translated into English, such as Manuel da Nobrega's Dialogue for the Conversion of the Indians. The volume features a generous selection of texts from New Spain, New France, New Netherland, the Middle Atlantic region and the Chesapeake and Indies, which are rarely brought together. It includes works not usually collected, like Benjamin Church's Entertaining Passages Relating to King Philip's War, and gives a special emphasis to writing by women. These selections, extensively annotated, expand the range of what is usually considered "American" literature, and offer a unique comparative perspective.

This innovative collection enables students and general readers to examine the phenomenon of colonialism across the Americas, both in general terms and in its specific consequences for Native American culture, and for European explorers and settlers.